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Wapakoneta freshman Zofkie starting fast in 2 sports

Wapakoneta High School freshman Allie Zofkie would find it hard to have a better start to her high school athletic career.

The tiny two-sport athlete is making a big impact early in the 2013-14 school year.

Zofkie has won two cross country races in three attempts and is undefeated in the second singles’ lineup on the Redskins’ tennis team.

“It’s good. I need to keep it up,” Zofkie said about her start so far this fall. “I just need to keep going to practice and improve. When I miss practice for one sport, I need to make up for it on my own.”

Zofkie opened her high school cross country career with a 10th-place finish in the OHSAA Early Season Invitational, on the site of the Ohio high school cross country state championships at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.

Zofkie hopes the Aug. 17 race she ran on the state course isn’t the only time she runs there this season.

“I want to go to state,” Zofkie said about her goals for the cross country postseason.

In the meantime, Zofkie is concentrating on each race until that point.

She described her goals entering each time she runs.

“I try to improve my times,” Zofkie said. “If it’s a small race, I try to win it. If it’s a big race, I try to keep up with the people in front.”

On the tennis courts, the freshman has started her varsity career with a 11-0 record, including a title in the second singles bracket at the Lima City Invitational on Aug. 24.

Zofkie’s father, John, was a tennis player. He helps his daughter spend time practicing the sport.

“He helps me,” Zofkie said of her father. “We’ll practice a lot.”

The two sports she plays obviously require tremendous endurance and conditioning.

“I really never get tired,” Zofkie said.

She credits that to trying very hard in any and all training she does, which of course means any work she does on increasing her endurance helps her in one sport as much as the other.

“I focus on trying hard in training,” Zofkie said.

With a state trip in mind for cross country, she proposed how her tennis season might conclude.